When the cosmic tumblers click into place and the universe opens its vault, miracles can happen. Inspired by his dying father’s dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail, Paul Travers hits the trail and finds that miracle in the healing power of America's sacred mountains.
Dancing with the Mountains... Alzheimer’s, Angels, and the Appalachian Trail - A Journey of Spirit (Ozark Mountain Publishing) chronicles Paul’s thru-hike to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association and prove that “60 is the new 40.” More than a travelogue, it is a love story about fathers and sons, families battling Alzheimer's, and the people and places along the Appalachian Trail. Sprinkled with humor and humanity, it is the spiritual response to A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.
On his pilgrimage, Paul eludes the FBI, confronts his guardian angel, encounters a ghost, survives a near drowning and a lightning strike, acquires a trail name (Sondance), walks off the war with his father, solves the death of a Hollywood starlet, finds a Field of Dreams, meets St. Francis and the Buddha, visits ground zero for the 60s hippie movement (Arlo's not Alice's Restaurant), embraces a religious cult, greets a female apostle, receives a sacred stone from a Lakota medicine man, discovers his father’s parallel spiritual journey, and copes with the death of his parents. His adventure ultimately reveals nature is not the handiwork of God but the hand of God that leads each of us on a unique spiritual journey.
A former park ranger/historian for Maryland Park Service and Marine Corps officer, Paul is the author of Eyewitness to Infamy (Globe Pequot), The Cowgirl and the Colts (Helm Books), and The Patapsco: Baltimore’s River of History (Schiffer Publishing).